Love Burned, She Rose Unscathed

"Come on in," the staff member announced, stepping aside from the split curtains that fluttered eerily with the draft coming through, revealing a pitch-black corridor. Screams echoed intermittently, making Leda swallow hard and tighten her grip on Roseanne's hand, hesitatingly stepping inside.

Almost dragging her along, Roseanne couldn't help but chuckle at Leda's timidity. "We could always bail, okay?"

"No way! We're already here!" Petrified yet unwilling to admit it, Leda bravely pulled Roseanne forward.

Suddenly, a ghastly figure jumped out.

"Ah! Anne, help me!"

Murray whipped around, sure he'd heard someone call out Anne?

But a glance around yielded no sign of the familiar face, causing him to frown in frustration.

Oblivious to Murray's distraction, Millie clung to him with a look of utter fear. "Murray, I'm scared. You'll protect me, won't you?"

Murray snapped back to reality, offering a noncommittal grunt.

The darkness was broken only by intermittent red lights. Millie clung to Murray's arm for dear life, too terrified to venture ahead on her own. When a ghostly figure, its face half-peeled and blood-streaked, suddenly appeared, Millie screamed in terror, refusing to let go of Murray.

"Is it... is it gone, Murray?" Millie stammered, with her face buried in his chest.

Murray patted her back dismissively. "It's over. Don't worry."

He couldn't understand how anyone could be scared by such amateurish attempts at horror.

Roseanne wouldn't have been. That name unexpectedly crossed his mind, making Murray stiffen. Why did he keep thinking of her, especially when he'd been eager to move on? "Murray?" Millie looked up, catching the fleeting shadow of depth in his eyes, puzzled.Please check at N/ôvel(D)rama.Org.

"Shall we continue?" Murray suggested, masking his emotions.

Leda had tried to steel herself before entering. But the sight of a corpse suddenly opening its eyes in a coffin sent her into a panic, causing her to flee, leaving Roseanne bewildered at her disappearing figure.

Leda had headed toward the exit, but once she passed through, the door shut behind her, leaving Roseanne to find another way out.

Wandering around, she accidentally locked eyes with a coffin-dwelling NPC whose tongue prop comically fell out, eliciting a mix of pity and amusement from her. She stepped forward and tucked it back in place.

NPC thought, "You're kind, huh."

Lost in a maze with three exits and dim lighting, it wasn't long before Roseanne admitted to herself that it was less of a haunted house and more of a labyrinth.

An alarm blared overhead as she considered the absurdity of constructing such a confusing escape route.

Roseanne couldn't help but think, "Is my luck this bad?"

The fire alarm set off a wave of panic, with people desperately pushing toward the exits. With less of a crowd around her, Roseanne е tried to keep pace but soon found herself struggling to breathe in the cramped space, forcing her to slow down and navigate through the chaos at her pace.